What the Dickens?

What the Dickens?
Details
Date	December 22nd, 2015 to January 13th, 2016
Highlights	Introducing Trinkets Merc Trinkets Ranked Trinkets 'What the Dickens?' Loadout Cards 'What the Dickens?' Cases Ranked Seasons Balance changes
Update chronology
Containment War What the Dickens? Rogue en Vogue Unlock and Load Up Your Arsenal Fine Tuning Update - June 2016 The Classy Art Hole Update Summer Squash The MOFO Update Dickensday: Winter's Meme Event Ranked Season 2 The Dockyard Update Ranked Season 3 Shell Shock Update Final Assault Update Javelin Update Ghostclip Update Guardian Update Ranked Season 4 Jackal's Eve Update Fine Tuning Update - November 2017 Balance Update - November 2017 Nuclear Winter Update Lead and Iron Update Hunter Update MercSERV Melee Mayhem Update Quick Join Update
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What the Dickens? was an update that started December 22nd, 2015 and ended January 13th, 2016. The update included brand new trinkets, 'What the Dickens?' Loadout Cards and Cases, ranked seasons, and a variety of balance changes.

Duration

• London (GMT, UTC): 18:00, Tuesday, December 22nd - 18:00, Wednesday, January 13th
• Los Angeles (PST): 10:00 AM, Tuesday, December 22nd - 10:00 AM, Wednesday, January 13th
• Sydney (AEDT): 5:00 AM, Wednesday, December 23rd - 5:00 AM, Thursday, January 14th

Introducing Trinkets

Main article: Trinkets

During the 'What the Dickens?' event trinkets were introduced into the game, three event trinket types could be earned.

Trinket Hunt

Trinket Hunt was the first trinket event that allowed users to earn trinkets. The event took place during December 22nd, 2015 and ended January 6th, 2015. Users had two weeks and two days to play 3, 15 or 60 hours in game to earn respective tier of trinkets. These tiers included:

• Lump 'o Coal (3 hrs)
• Olde Flashlight (+12 hrs; 15 total hrs)
• Warm Snowman (+45 hrs; 60 total hrs)

Merc Trinkets

Players had a chance to buy limited edition trinkets during the Trinket Hunt event. Each trinket cost a total of $4.99 USD and could only be purchased with real-life currency. The trinkets included:

Mine Sweeper

Proxy adorably recalls the misery of the 19th century working class

Arty Marley

Arty is a genuine throwback to Scrooge's ghostly business partner

Angel of Ire

Sparks is really not happy to see you. She's just not.

Pre-Season Ranked Trinkets

The Pre-Season trinket were awarded to players that completed 10 ranked matches and placed in a ranked tier. Trinkets were awarded based of ranks earned. Depending on current rank the player holds (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Cobalt & Elite) a respective trinket would be awarded at the end of the 2015 Pre-Season. Similar events are planned for each subsequent season.

'What the Dickens?' Loadout Cards

Limited edition 'What the Dickens?' Loadout Cards could be earned during the duration of the event. These cards featured the "Xmas2015" camo which was a white over green ugly sweater pattern for teammate and green over white for enemies.

'What the Dickens?' Cases

Limited edition 'What the Dickens?' cases were earned by playing the game or buying them in the store. 'What the Dickens?' equipment cases had a small chance of dropping a 'What the Dickens?' Loadout Card while the in store cases offered a greater chance of dropping a loadout.

Ranked Seasons

Main article: Ranked

The 'What the Dickens?' event introduced ranked. Before this point ranked with a beta feature and was stuck in 'Pre-season' mode.

Balance Changes

Augments

• Guardian Angel - Now receive an audio warning whenever nearby enemy air support is a danger to you and 20% reduced damage from air support abilities
  • This now also includes Kira's Orbital Laser and the audio has been updated to make the timing and positioning more obvious
• Pineapple Juggler - Now allows you to melee hit back mid-air grenades and other projectiles
  • This also includes Airstrike Markers, Heartbeat Sensors and even Sticky Bombs and Molotov Grenades if timed correctly
• Quick Eye - Now also reduces the raise/lower times of iron-sighting, as well as increased movement speed when sighted
• Bomb Squad - Now adds an on-screen indicator to all enemy deployables within line of sight, making them much more visible
  • This includes items like Turrets, Stations, Mines, Sticky Bombs etc

Proxy

• Reduced Proximity Mine cooldown to 20s (from 25s)
• Increased Proximity Mine detection radius to 1.92m (from 1.6m)
• Slightly reduced intensity of Proximity Mine glow

Fragger

• Reduced Frag Grenade damage to 170 (from 180)

Thunder

• Reduced fuse time on Concussion Grenade to 1.2s (from 1.6s)
• Increased maximum Concussion stun duration to 6s (from 5s)
• Increased maximum Concussion stun movement reduction to 99% (from 80%) - this recovers over time during the stun duration

Vassili

• Increased Heartbeat Sensor detection radius to 14.4m (from 12.8m)

Redeye

• Reduced time it takes to spot enemies with IR Goggles to 0.2s (from 0.3s)

Dreiss AR

• Increased damage to 27 (from 26)
• Reduced maximum bullet spread and spread increase rate by ~15%

Timik-47

• Reduced recoil by ~10%

SMG-9

• Reduced bullet spread by ~2%
• Reduced recoil by ~3%

Blishlok

• Reduced bullet spread by ~3%
• Reduced recoil by ~6%

Hollunds 880

• Reduced pellet spread by ~6%
• Increased effective range by ~6%

Remburg 7

• Reduced pellet spread by ~5%
• Increased effective range by ~8%

MoA SNPR-1

• Increased rate of fire to 50 RPM (from 46)
• Reduced reload time to 2.4s (from 2.6s)

FEL-IX

• Increased rate of fire to 46 RPM (from 40)
• Reduced reload time to 2.5s (from 2.6s)

PDP-70

• Increased recoil by ~10%

Grandeur SR

• Reduced vertical recoil by ~15%

Other Changes

Objective Mode will once again be the first experience for players new to the world of Dirty Bomb.

• Made Objective Mode the initially available game mode
• Execution Mode is now unlocked at Level 3

Gameplay

• Removed the Win Execution Rounds missions
• Increased the XP given per magazine of Ammo to 20XP (from 15XP)
• Increased all hand-thrown grenade bounciness by ~10%
• Tapping ironsight and releasing fire no longer almost-instantly resets hip-fired bullet spread
• Enabled Pausing in Private Matches
• Disarming will now always prioritise over helping up
• Synced reloading gameplay timings more closely with individual weapon animations
  • MP 400 - ammo is now given 0.43s earlier in the animation
  • Empire-9 - ammo given 0.51s earlier
  • FEL-IX - ammo given 0.91s earlier
  • Blishlok - ammo given 0.63s earlier
  • K-121 - ammo given 0.49s later
  • Simeon .357 - ammo given 0.10s later
  • Smjüth & Whetsman .40 - ammo given 0.10s later
  • PDP-70 - ammo given 0.11s later

User Interface

• Added new Minimal and Super settings to the video options
• Updated the advanced settings section in the video options menu
  • Changed name of One Frame Interval to Thread Sync and inverted the behavior
    • Off - Improved performance at the cost of input latency
    • On - Reduced input latency as the cost of performance
• In-game chat messages now carry over from in-game to the end review screen
• Made the matchmaking Rank of all players visible in Party lobbies
• Spectators will now correctly see which team has won at the end of the match
• Added CDA/Jackal icons to scoreboard

Audio

• Continued improvements on the overall mix to prioritize important gameplay audio
• Reduced the incoming hit notification audio so players can hear incoming gun fire more clearly
• Improved the outro cinematic audio on Chapel
• Reduced the sound of footsteps when turning on the spot
• Updated the supporting audio for the Chopper Augment
• Added new audio for when players Rank up or down after a Ranked Match
• Audio polish passes for Revive Notifications, Stilnotto Stiletto, Airstrikes and Heartbeat Sensors
• Added audio for opening and closing gates on Dome

Maps

• Dome - Players can no longer jump on the sale sign near the brewery

Notable Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug where Merc dialogue was still audible when Dialogue Volume was set to 0
• Fixed bug where Proximity Mines and Turrets could become silent
• Fixed bug where Concussion Grenade audio effects would play for team-mates and through walls
• Fixed bug where using admin commands to restart a map would break Stopwatch mode win rules
• Fixed bug where the EV destination marker was not visible in the second round of Stopwatch
• Fixed bug where Thunder could get XP for hitting team-mates with a Concussion Grenade when Friendly Fire is ON
• Fixed bug where players could receive combat XP for damaging team-mates with abilities when Friendly Fire is ON
• Fixed bug with Sticky Bombs breaking carryable objective interactions by making them bounce off carryables
• Fixed bug where the Healing Station could heal through certain sections of wall
• Fixed bug where players could accidentally reclaim items deployed behind them
• Fixed bug where footstep audio could sometimes be missing
• Fixed bug where explosives could deal no damage to someone delivering a carryable objective
• Fixed bug where the C4 could disappear in Execution rounds
• Fixed bug where no bullet casings were ejected when firing the MK46 while ironsighted
• Fixed bug where in-match UI dropdown boxes moved off-screen at high resolutions